Rishi Atom

BJP's stupid masterstroke of trying to "tame" Bajrang Dal and VHP caused this retardation. These organisations need not be tamed. You can dissociate with them publicly while allowing them to operate. A lot of people think that majority opinion matters. Majority opinion does not matter. 20,000 people at Jantar Mantar near the Presidential Palace had a far higher chance of executing a "colour revolution" than the opinion of 200 million people across the Gangetic plain. Remember most of the plains, numbering 70 million or so people was tacitly supporting the 1857 revolt, but they didn't matter. Just 9,000 loyalist troops entered Delhi in 1857, and even fewer into the Red Fort. Concentrated mobilization of an opposing force near a centre of power has changed history. In that sense, it appears that the modern Indian state is competent enough to stop that kind of mobilization. Be it war or protest, if you can stop the enemy from mobilizing, that is the fastest path to victory. Mobilization and stopping it itself is a test of institutional strength and competence. This is precisely why you need VHP and BD. There are enough Leftist malcontents in this country. You cannot send police after every one of them. In fact you should not. You should tacitly support your non state actors. Some fistfights between two political groups is a necessary way to keep the masses entertained and release their anger.

As an outsider, my analysis of the situation is that this whole discourse exists because a few Americans of Indian descent who thought they could be part of the Republican Party. Zohran Mamdani straight up wrote in his manifesto he was going to do race redistributionism but did not get a fraction of hate as Vivek or D'Souza now is getting. In a democracy, parties very often are a vehicle for several interest groups. The American Republican Party is a vehicle for White, Christian interests. It may not overtly say so, but it is implied. The "free market", "Libertarian" tinge was not the result of American high ideals of freedom but rather the unwillingness of non-coastal Americans to be governed by the ethnically or culturally alien urbanites; which is why most American Libertarians eventually end up revealing preferences which are not very libertarian. Principled Libertarians are a small minority. In that sense, moderate Republicanists who lament that American minorities don't vote Republican don't seem to realise that the minorities are doing a large of part of their base a favour. The White identitarian base of the Republican Party would prefer if Non-Whites do not vote for it, that ensures that the Republican Party can continue to act as vehicle for their interests. There is nothing particularly wrong about White/Christian Identitarianism. However, even the far right Republicanists implicitly feel that they have to justify themselves. This is why they spend hours hallucinating that Indians are planning a secret takeover of the United States or that the Indian government has a grand plan to settle Indians into the US. The H1B was not passed by the Indian government, the Indian software industry predates that American visa program by 30 years. TCS was making software for its sister company Tata Steel in 1968. Regardless, I am digressing. A few Indian Americans are where they're not supposed to be, and sections of White Identitarians are not fully comfortable in asking what they want.